The Key West Citizen

Chapter 30

Morris' Story

As has already been pointed out," Morris said, "I drove her from it."

"By forcing your attentions on her?"

Not at all. I fired her for incompetency. She had a nasty habit of standing on stage and not being able to say a line.

Steve said, "Yes, because she was so terrified of you that..."

Morris' voice rose above Steve's. No. Because she was drunk. On one occasion, the last, she wasn't even able to stand, she passed out on stage. We had to lower the curtain and have the understudy take over."

"That's a lie!" Steve said hoarsely.

Carol clutched at his shoulders with both hands. I could see that they were shaking. But her voice was steady.

"Yes, Steve, it's a lie. It's what he told the other managers in London about me. That's why they wouldn't give me a job, any of them. Don't listen to him, Steve."

Morris said calmly. "I told the other managers about you because I didn't want you to spoil their productions as you did mine."

"Go on, Mr. Morris, go on! Tell what you told them. Tell everything you said!"

I'd rather not, really.

No. You're afraid to. You're afraid in front of Steve, you know that he...

Peterson said, "Take it easy, Miss Blanton."

She sank back on the couch trembling violently and Steve held her tight with one arm around her shoulders, his other hand clasping hers. Morris looked at the cigarette that he turned in his fingers as if it were the only important thing in the room.

"So you'd rather not talk about what happened in London, Mr. Morris?"

No. I assure you it is as painful to me as it is to Miss Blanton and her young champion."

Nuts!" said Peterson. "If I were you, Mr. Morris, I'd talk. And I'd talk loud."

Very well. It seems my reticence has implicated me in a mess I'd hoped to avoid. So my story is this:

I saw Miss Blanton, then Miss Gray, playing at the Royal Academy as she says, and I thought her a beautiful child giving a lovely performance. I cast her in Green Apples. When rehearsals started we were a happy group of people. The cast was a playwright's dream.

But in six weeks it was turning into a cesspool. There wasn't a friendship left. My actors were behaving like a bunch of neurotics. My leading man and my leading lady hated each other. The lovely young thing who had been playing Haila Rogers' part attempted suicide. Her engagement to the young stage manager had been mysteriously broken.

My character man, a fine old chap, had suddenly become a dipsomaniac. That made two in my company, including Miss Blanton."

Truth At Last

Jeff sidestepped in front of Steve as he started to rise.

Carol sat rigidly, one hand covering her eyes.

Peterson growled, "Go on."

The character man had been milked of every cent he had, and made a fool of, by my pretty ingenue. In those six weeks a brilliant young actress' career and love affair had been ruined by this ingenue's malignant slander.

She had broken friendships, torn people apart with her lies and intrigue and ambition. That ingenue was Leila Gray."

There was a moment of white-hot silence before Carol, tears streaming down her cheeks, leaped to her feet.

"Now you see why I ran away. why I changed my name, why I've lived in terror of him! Now he's trying to wreck Steve's love for me, he's trying to break my life again!"

She turned to Steve, her chin lifted bravely. "I knew he'd do this, Steve. That's why I wanted to send you away. Steve, darling, try to forget all this, forget how horrible he is and all his horrible lies."

She fled into the bedroom.

Steve stared after her, a bewildered, almost frightened look on his face.

"Steve," I said. "go to her. She needs you now. Don't stand there like that! Steve, why don't you go to her!"

Jeff said quietly: "Because what Morris said is true, Haila. All of it."

No one moved. Steve was still looking dazedly at the closed bedroom door and Greeley Morris watched him with anxiety. Peterson, the policeman, sat waiting.

I said, "No, Jeff."

"Yes. Don't you see that she's done the same thing to your company that she did in England? Only here someone tried to kill her for it, and that covered her up. Everyone was afraid to tell the truth about Carol for fear that it might throw suspicion for her attempted murder and Eve's death on them. Everyone but Alice McDonald. She knew what Carol was and she could speak.

Carol hadn't given her a motive for murder. But when Alice told us you laughed at her. You didn't believe her."

But you didn't either."

It started me thinking."

Peterson said impatiently. "What has she done? And who did she do it to?"

To Philip Ashley. She used the same technique on him that she practiced on that character man in England. In his room I found an I.O.U. for five hundred dollars. It was a silly game, he said, the I.O.U. was only a joke. But it wasn't a joke. It was real. And God knows how many more of them there were or why he was fool enough to have loaned her the money.

Look at Tommy Neilson. She had him nuts about her, she took everything that Tommy had to offer and then she dropped him. She dropped him because she saw bigger game and that bigger game was Steve.

With Steve there was wealth and position. No wonder she did everything in her power to keep the story of Lee Gray from coming out. That's why she was rushing the engagement and the wedding. She made him think that it was he who was doing the rushing. She talked about endangering his life, knowing that it would make Steve more anxious to marry her quickly and take care of her."

"But, Jeff," I said. "with me she was always... she seemed such a child. I thought she was my friend. And she was, Jeff! She never did anything to me."

Haila, she's been using you since the moment you met. She made as much money from Green Apples as you did, but she's borrowed from you, lived here, eaten your food, worn your clothes...

But they were such little things! I didn't mind."

... and she drank your liquor. Didn't the amount of liquor that little angel put away ever puzzle you, Haila? But she was watching her step pretty carefully. She never wanted Steve to see her drunk."

Broken Man

I FORCED myself to look at Steve. He was hunched down in a big chair, his face blank with shock. His eyes seemed strangely glazed. I turned away from him to Jeff

But I... I can't believe all this! She couldn't have been so ... couldn't have been what you say and at the same time seemed..."

Jeff said. "She was, Haila. She is a wonderful actress. Tonight when I announced that I had found Lee Gray the way she leaned forward and said, 'Who?' nearly made me think I was wrong. She told her fantastic story about Greeley Morris to Greeley Morris and never batted an eyelash. She lied to you about her voice the night the play opened, about everything. Think a little, Haila. It's true, isn't it?"

Steve stood up. Mechanically. he went to the table in the corner and picked up his hat. Without looking at any of us he moved to the door. We heard his heavy footsteps on the stairs outside.

The door remained wide open.

Morris said suddenly: "I'd like to run along, Peterson. That boy. Perhaps I can... he's too nice a kid to have had this happen to him."

"Go ahead, Morris."

My brain felt muddled, foggy. There was a sharp, biting ache at my temples. I walked to the bedroom door and stood looking at it.

From behind me Jeff was saying. "All along I've known that there was some strange undercurrent, something I couldn't put my finger on, running through the whole company. And I knew that in some way it was connected with Carol. Everyone was too fond of her, too incredulous that a single hair of her pretty head should be in danger. There was something phony about it. I didn't know that it was because she was hated so passionately, and with such damn good cause, that everyone was leaning over backward for fear of being suspected of murder."

I turned at the sound of Peterson's voice. He stood in the doorway frowning.

"We've tried like hell to find a suspect," he said, "someone with a motive to kill Carol Blanton. I thought when we found Lee Gray we'd also get our suspect. Well we found her. Before, we had no suspects. Now, as far as I can see, practically everyone in New York and England has a reason to kill her."

To be continued